Family Secret's
by Omen657
Summary: What happens when your family had secrets you didn't know about, enemies you've never known who want you dead. This story will follow a girl named Amber, as she finds out who her family really was. SnakeEyes/OC
1. Prologue

**Ok, new story. Sorry my fans for not updating on the other one and birthing this one but the other is still in progress, getting new ideas for it so have to no fear. I now have a Beta reader so hopefully my stories will get better, the prologue here sounds so much better after she looked it over; Verophobic your my hero. Sorry that the Prologue is so short but this will explain a thing or two...hopefully if you look at the right way (turns head sides ways). So lets commence onward with me writing stories and pleasing people.**

**I don't own any part of G.I. Joe or any of its characters...but if I did, Snake Eyes would be helping me write this. I do own any Oc's or random people or things in the story.**

**Thoughts will be in **_Italic and underlined..._**and Sign Language and things written on paper will be in _Bold and Italic_**

**Hope you all enjoy this short bit! =^.^=**

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Explosions…gunfire…screams of dying and wounded men and women. Everyone was yelling to give orders, some to press forward, some to fall back, and regroup to those still alive. Most of the soldiers stayed and pushed their way forward, inch by inch, foot by foot.

.~:*:~.

My feet hurt and my legs throbbed in pain from all the running while my chest was stinging from the sand, smoke and the constant rush of hot air from the Israeli climate. My team and I, also known as the Sidewinders, neared our target location, a communication building with classified information that needed to be retrieved. Our team is a top class infantry and retrieval group; get in, kill hostiles, and get the information then get out.

Right now we were crouched near a low wall in front of the building, about 30 feet from the front door, and I gave hand commands to my men. _Set a parameter and keep the enemy from advancing. Group one, move to the front and head inside._ My men acknowledged me by patting my back, and then we rushed to the building, four of us going inside.

"Keep the hallways clear, empty and check the rooms. We don't need people sneaking up on us," Once I gave the order my men headed off and I hurried to the main computer terminals, two floors up. "Area secure, awaiting further instruction" I heard in my earpiece as I found the computer, getting out a USB I replied.

"Rodger that, hold positions, retrieving data now," I stuck the USB into one of the ports, typed a few things and watched everything start to download.

The download was almost complete when one of my men contacted me. "Jets coming in hot, you need to get out of there Commander," he informed me as I pulled the USB out and headed out.

"Clear out!" I yelled through the ear piece when I saw the jets through an open window, I ran. I ran as fast as my pained legs would allow, and then some.

Just as I reached a few feet out of the building, my men waiting for me behind a small shack about thirty yards off, the building exploded. I was sent flying forward as I screamed in pain….

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><p><strong>Hope you all enjoyed that very...very...very short Prologue. BUT!...have no fear, the first chapter will be longer than this.<strong>

**Please Read and Review**

**~~Thank you~~**


	2. Introductions

**Ok, here is the first chapter to this story and hopefully the others will be just as good as this one. I hope this chapter is detailed enough for some of you, if not, please tell me and I will go and add more detail-by-detail stuff.**

**I don't own any part of G.I. Joe or any of its characters...but if I did, Snake Eyes would be helping me write this. I do own any Oc's or random people or things in the story.**

**Thoughts will be in **_Italic and underlined__**...**_**and Sign Language and things written on paper will be in **_**Bold and Italic.**_

_**Hope you all enjoy...cheers!**_

_.~:*:~._

I jolted awake, screaming and sweating from my nightmare of the painful past memories, my glock was in my hand and slightly shaking. Wincing in pain from my back and shoulder, scarred from the blast from when they caught fire and shrapnel shredding them. More than half of my right arm had been too damaged to save, so it was amputated at the shoulder.

After that mission and all my surgeries to save my life, I was honorably discharged and was awarded with a Silver Star and Purple Heart for my bravery. Once I had recovered to a point where I could go on with life without help from nurses, I wanted back in, to take charge of my team again and to serve my country…..but my superiors said no.

A year had passed since my request to go back and serve, when a man had came to me, offering me a job to serve my country once again. He told me he could use my skills in his top dog team of skilled soldiers and said he would work on giving me a new arm, one that was better than the prosthetic one I already had. I asked what the catch was, he said there wasn't one, and just that he thought I could be addition to his team. I agreed on the spot…that day was two years ago.

Getting out of bed, I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower to ease the pain in my back and shoulder. Thanks to Breaker, the techie on the Alpha Team, I had a new arm. He had made me a brand new robotic right arm, 'best military money can make', he said. I sighed and stripped down once the water got hot and stepped inside, shivering at how good the water felt on my scorching back.

Once I was done with the ten minute or so shower, I stepped out and got dressed into a simple tank top and sweat pants. I popped some pain killers into my mouth, swallowing them a bit painfully without the help of water, then I went and laid back down to get more sleep… Or so I had hoped. Someone knocked on my door just as I had lain down. I looked over at the clock which read 2:43 A.M. and I still had about 2 hours 'til wake-up call and breakfast.

Groaning, I got up and answered the door to see Scarlet, the one female on Alpha Team other than me. She stood there with an electronic pad in her hands, "Time for training…get ready." I respected this woman to a point because she was the only other women on a team filled with guys, which I didn't mind at all, but this was crazy for training this early.

"It's almost 3:00 A.M. Wake-up call isn't 'till 5:30," I was agitated from the fitful sleep from my nightmares and the pain in my back. Taking away my sleeping time was like taking candy away from a five year old. Easy to do but the consequences wouldn't be worth it. I was going to be in a bad mood today. A _very_ bad mood.

"Snake wants to train with you at 6 for your one-on-one time after breakfast and I wanted to snag you for basic training before that since Heavy is training with you for the whole afternoon," she put a hand on her hip with the same tone of voice I gave her.

"Fine….but you owe me," I finally answered, knowing I wasn't going to win the argument. Not this one, besides I was to tired to try and argue my way to winning.

.~:*:~.

By the time I had to go and train with Snake Eyes, I was already sore and tired. Apparently Scarlet wanted me to do more than just basic training by doing difficult speed courses and accuracy simulation, which I got hit twice by the stun blasts. The levels she set the stun at were higher than what I usually trained at and was insane by my standards. Which happened to be insane themselves.

As I walked over to the area where Snake was training, I saw that he was still teaching his first class of the day and by the looks had only started an hour ago. I decided to sit and watch the recruits spar with each other. Apparently as I sat there on the sidelines, I sensed someone looking at me so I looked around and saw Snake Eyes staring at me, almost as in thought. I stared right back at the silent ninja til' his head turned towards the mat when one of the male recruits bested the other by throwing the second guy to the ground, I looked up as well. When the two walked off the mat, Snake motioned for me to come over to him with a jerk of his head as he walked to the mat. I got up and walked over to him, taking off my heavy boots before walking onto the mat.

Over the course of the two years I had been here and seen Snake Eyes use ASL to communicate with others, I started to pick up what he signed and started to teach myself along with one or two basic lessons from the silent man. The lessons I did learn were rare and in turn provided to be helpful, to a point.

Stopping in front of him, he signed to me using basic symbols for me to understand so he wouldn't have to pull out his pen and paper. Once he finished, I nodded once, once I got the gist of what he was trying to tell me.

"Which one do you prefer me to go against?... Since I am a few classes ahead of them," He pointed to a recruit that hadn't yet spared and motioned him over. One thing I did know was that this was going to be easier than I thought, at least for now.

.~:*:~.

I slightly panted as I threw the recruit onto the floor then quickly got into a defensive position. This was the fifth recruit I had went through in the hour and a half since the first. I wasn't quiet sure who was trying to prove something; me to see how good my training was or Snake Eyes to show the recruits at how much there was to learn and to train hard.

Snake Eyes stepped onto the mat to show that this 'battle' was over. He helped the young man who was wheezing from having the wind knocked out of him, and over to the others who took him from there. Snake Eyes looked back over at me gave a nod of approval for my performance but for some reason, I couldn't resist the words in my head as they spilled out of my mouth.

"Whats the deal Snakes? Trying to see how good I am, before I kick your ass?" I realized what I said and clamped my hands over my mouth as he turned towards me fully, his head slightly bowed and tilted to left, almost in a threatening and scary way. Like a warning almost. He was trying to make me back down so I stood tall.

Before I could speak to take back my words or take back the fact I stepped up to his challenge, Snake Eyes got into a fighting position and motioned for me to do the same, obviously implying me to put my actions where my mouth was. I gulped slightly as I slowly got into a stance, people started to crowd around. If I was going to talk the talk, then he was going to make me walk the walk.

"Can we just...I don't know, talk this over...maybe over some TEA!" Screeching the word 'tea' as I spun to the left to dodge his punch I had to then ducked out of the way from his round house to my head. I rolled several times away from him and got to my feet but only to receive a blow to the side of my arm from his booted foot which sent me stumbling to the side but quickly caught myself. Huffing, I straightened, clearly not going to be able to get out of this and running away was not an option. "_Just going to have to take the beating...me and my damn mouth..."_

.~:*:~.

"Owww..." Putting up and fighting with smart mouthed recruits was easy, but being over confident and fighting Snake Eyes was another thing all together. I had bruises everywhere and they hurt, it seemed that even those bruises had bruises. "Note to self, don't taunt our ninja..." I told myself as I laid down on one of the Rec room couches, ice packs on my more painful spots.

Two men walked into the room and were laughing at some joke they shared. "So I hear there's a midget on the team that wasn't present when we got picked up," An African looking man said as he and another man, guessing that was his friend and maybe American, walked into my peripheral vision but they obviously didn't see me. "I wonder if she's cute like the red head," He kept talking, both of them chuckling as they went to go bench press a few weights.

Feeling that they were talking about me, I decided to step in. "Why don't you ask her yourself,"sitting up, I looked over at the two, obviously shocked and surprised by my presence. By what anyone could have guessed but the feeling in gut told me it was my height which was just and inch under five foot. "And I'm a legal midget for your information, just under five foot, and the reasons for me being absent during what your talking about is none of your business," I stood proudly at my height and words then winced when I moved to much. "Oww."

"HA!...legal midget my ass. You have to be at least four foot two," the black man laughed as he supported himself on his friends shoulder so he wouldn't fall over laughing, I pouted and glared at him.

"And you have to be the biggest ass in the world..." I retorted. His friend on the other hand elbowed him in the gut hard, well, just enough for him to fall to the floor in pain.

"Ouch baby...that was cold..."he breathed through gritted teeth.

"I'm Duke," The black mans friend said as he stepped over him and held out his hand. "Sorry for his behavior, he just doesn't know when to act like a man," I giggled at his remark to the man on the floor. "He has the mental span of a four year old on candy," Duke told me as he leaned over so his friend couldn't hear.

"I am not!" The man shot to his feet and pushed Duke out of the way and smiled a cheeky smile as he took my hand in his and kissed it.

"Names Ripcord, but you can just call me Rip and him 'Mr. Grouchy Pants',"he told me and I giggled as he shot Duke the stink eye then stuck his tongue out and gave him a raspberry. Rip got roughly nudged out of the way by Duke as he shook my hand.

"Warner...Amber Warner. I'd give you my code name but unfortunately I have yet to come up with one, nor have I been given one, seems everyone is just fine by calling me by my real name," I said after shaking both their hands. "You two must be the one's who brought the warheads...and blackmailed your way in," I stated to both men as they looked away sheepishly, as if caught red handed by stealing out of the cookie jar. When Duke was the first to look back at me, I caught him staring at me. I followed his line of sight and found where he was looking, my right arm, my robotic arm. Feeling uncomfortable from his staring, I covered my arm up with my hoodie by pulling the sleeve down which snapped him out of his trance of starring.

"Sorry...you must be that Amber, Major Amber Warner," He gave me a look of pity as he spoke. "What you did for the price you paid is...amazing. It's an honor, ma'am,"he gave me a salute in respect and I gave him a sweet smile in thanks.

"We all pay in some way or another. I'm just glad it was me and not one of my men. I'd hate to have to have given their families the bad news and losing someone so young," I smiled again, this one more soft and caring. Just as I was about to say more, Rip wrapped an arm around my shoulders and lifted up my right arm and inspected my metal hand.

"So not only are you a midget-"

"Legal midget," I interrupted.

"-Whatever, but your also part cyborg,"he laughed but didn't' get far as I elbowed him hard in the gut with my metal elbow, sending him to the floor again to wither in pain and knocking the wind from him. Duke chuckled at this, seeing that his friend deserved it for insulting me.

"So it seems you went toe-to-toe with the ninja," Duke motioned to the fist sized bruises on my cheek and the ice pack on the table, both of us walked away from the still withering man on the floor behind us.

"Yeah, first recruits from warm-ups then him as the full on assault, and some advice, don't taunt the man. He has a killer round house," Remembering the kick to my head towards the end of the fight that I had blocked with my arms, which the left was now bruised. Just then, as if on Que, Snake Eyes and the rest of Alpha team walked in.

Duke excused himself from me and helped up his friend as I went back to the couch I had been sitting on and sat back down as Breaker sat next to me. "Time for a checkup?" I asked him, he nodded as he pulled out his laptop and the cable that connected to my arm and his computer. Within minutes, the Moroccan man had me take the hoodie off and everything hooked up to my arm and was typing swiftly away on his keyboard. As I sat there, bored and in pain, a small bowl of bananas and peanut butter was in my face. I looked up and saw Snakes visor looking down at me. "I take we are still friends?"he nodded and handed me a fork as I took the bowl. "Thanks, you always know how to lift my spirits,"he gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze and went to his corner to meditate.

I was only into my third bite when General Hawk walked in. "General on deck!" Heavy Duty boomed and everyone stood at attention. I slowly arose from my spot so the wire wouldn't be pulled out, I set my delicious snack on the coffee table next to me.

"At ease," Hawk smiled and looked towards me. He was always on edge with me because of my slight disability and always looked out for me just in case, it made me feel like I was family to him. "As everyone knows, Duke and Rip are now going to be a part of the team, if they get good scores on their training, but none-the-less they are still part of the team. Amber, when you and Breaker are finished, I would like you to show them to their rooms," I gave him a slight nod. "As for the mission, team, you all did well. I would like a page report and you're all free to have a day or two to rest," He announced then gave a curt nod to everyone then left.

I heard Duke and Rip give a small sigh of relief and smiled at each other then looked at me. "You mind if we wander around before you finish up?" Duke asked me. I replied with a simple nod and sat back to enjoy my snack and for Breaker to finish up.

.~:*:~.

By the time Breaker had finished, it was only me, him, Heavy, and Snake Eyes left in the Rec room. It had gotten so late that Scarlet obligated to show Duke and Rip to their rooms. "Finally done," Breaker told me as he unhooked the wire and packed up his stuff. "Why did it take so long?" I asked as I stretched and rolled down my sleeve.

Breaker looked back up at me. "There was slight damage, probably from your friend giving you some generous pay-back," Breaker glared over at the ninja's back as he cleaned his sword then he looked back at me, worry on his face.

"Hey...just because you built this baby, which I am grateful for, it don't mean that you have to get so worried every time a grain of sand or a drop of water gets onto it. Besides, if you keep worrying, not only are you going to go gray sooner rather than later, we won't be able to test out how much damage it can take," I made a flexing motion with my right arm and patted it. "Anyway, it is late and I'm turning in," I patted the techies shoulder as he sighed and left to turn in for the night as well. I went over to the small kitchen just as Heavy Duty left as well after closing a book he was reading. I started to wash out the bowl my snack was in then I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw Snake moved to stand next to me and took the bowl from me and set it aside.

"_**B.E.D**_,"he then pointed to the door then leaned against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at me. I pouted. "You're not my mother, I can go to bed when I please..." I responded and turned back to cleaning the bowl, knowing he was watching me. This time, he gently grabbed my wrist and put the bowl aside again and made me face him. He held up a small bottle of pills and I guiltily bit my bottom lip, knowing what he was slightly asking.

"I haven't been able to sleep well, okay? I told Doc and he gave me them, now can I please have them back,"I went to grab for them but he held them away out of reach. "Not fair Snakes..." I pouted since he was taller than me. He put them in his pocket then pulled out his pen and paper and began to write. "_Great, another bad lecture is coming my way..._"

"_**If it's the nightmares again, why didn't you come to me and talk?**_" He showed me the paper with his perfect and beautiful handwriting on it. "_**You know that talking helps, not hiding them away and taking pills to solve it. Talk to me Amber, I'm here to help, as a friend and not as a psychiatrist,**_" He tilted his head to the side, already knowing he was looking at me thoughtfully but in a caring way.

"I don't know Snake...it just seems that even talking to you doesn't help at times, and I know. You don't have to give me that survivor's guilt lecture..." I looked down as I leaned my hip against the counter. The one thing I didn't expect, even from him, is when he moved and wrapped his arms around me in a comforting hug, his pad of paper next to him for me to see. "_**I'm always here...no matter what,**_"at that I hugged him back, savoring this rare moment since we were alone.

**Hope you liked it.**

**Please Read and Review**


	3. Missing but found

**Here's chapter two everyone and I think I did pretty good on this one. Sorry it maybe shorter than I had wanted it to but I will try to make the next chapter longer.**

**Thank you everyone who has reviewed on my new story, it means a lot.**

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><p>I laid there staring at the ceiling, in the dark, on my bed. I hadn't been able to sleep for the past two days and Snake Eyes still hadn't given back my pills after we had our conversation and small talk in his room four days ago. The first two nights I was okay, nightmare free and sleeping peacefully but the last two nights with the nightmares hit me like a ton of bricks. "<em><span>I wonder if that small talk in Snakes room helped, even though it had nothing to do with my nightmares<span>_," I thought and rested my hands behind my head as I laid there.

"Either it's that or the voodoo tea he's been giving me..." I laid there in thought about the many possibilities of how he could have calmed my subconscious down, even if it wasonly temporary. I even talked to Doc about my nightmares which were more like horrible and gore filled blurs, but there were some parts that would play out. He told me that I was repressing memories of a tragic event, I already knew that and gave a smart remark which rewarded me with a slap up side my head. He also told me that talking about the nightmares or even reliving them through hypnotherapy could help. My answer was a _'hell to the fucking no'_.

I did tell the good old Doc that it had to do with something when I was a kid but couldn't remember anything past the age of 12, that everything was always blur when I tried to remember. He responded with a 'hmmm' and a 'well as long as this doesn't effect work, just try focus on taming the nightmares'. "_Great diagnosis Doc...not much of a help._" Though the only help he was right about was talking to someone and the only person I had ever felt talking to about personal things like my nightmares was Snake Eyes.

The silent man was than just patient with me when I talked to him, he actually listened and I mean listened, not the type of listening therapists do then respond with a logical answer. He would listen through everything then give me advice, the type you wouldn't find from a shrink, he would give a reassuring ten to fifteen second hug or rub my back. Why can't shrinks do that instead of treating you like you have a disorder or disease?

Coming out of my self argument and conversation with myself, I looked over at my clock on the nightstand, the red numbers reading 1:45 in the morning. Groaning, I took my pillow and smacked it over my face and yelled into it. "THIS ISN'T FAIR!" Thankfully no one heard my muffled screams.

I sat up in my bed and suddenly wondered if Snake Eyes was still up, hoping I could talk to him to ease my mind. Then I thought and remembered that one, it was late at night and usually the lastest he stay's up is 11pm or 2am, I would be abusing our friendship for me just to sleep peacefully for the next four to five hours. For me that would just not do...unless I had special permission from him to wake him up in the wee hours of the morning. No, that wouldn't even do, no matter how much a friend and gentle man he was.

Now thinking more logically about my subject at hand, I suddenly got up and sauntered over to my closet and started to change out of my pj's and change into my workout clothes. This consisted of a black sports bra, gray sweat capri's and black tennis shoes along with 5lbs weights for around my ankles. Tying my shoe laces then putting my hair up into a ponytail, I stood then headed off to the gym to tire out my body and hopefully my mind which is being depraved of sleep do to the infernal nightmares.

It took five minutes to get to the gym from where my room was, which was at the very end of the hallway where the rest of Alpha Teams rooms were, but when I arrived, I was re-leaved to find that there wasn't anyone around. I went straight over to a treadmill and set the speed to a jog, the miles to four and then I set the timer to see how long it took me run the four miles.

.~:*:~.

When I had lose track of how long I had been working out, I looked over at the clock on the wall nearest to me. "Ugh...3:15. Definitely need to start paying more attention..." I had been working out for almost three hours and I still wanted to at least meditate for 30 minutes to calm my body and try to ease my mind. "Just 15, just half of the time...I can do that," I headed to the main training room and into a one of the five private training rooms just in case someone came and tried to kick me out, though I'm pretty sure no one would but you never know. This way I could do the 15 minutes without people bothering or even know that I was even there to begin with.

I sat in the middle of the room and sat Indian style, closing my eyes as I breathed deep but slow. "_Just relax and clear my mind...clear my mind..._" I kept chanting softly in my head so I could calm my body down, not knowing that my mind would soon start to wander.

.~:*:~.

**Snake Eyes POV**

Awaking early was a usual routine for me in the mornings. Get up at 4:30, get ready for the day, eat before everyone so they don't see me then meet everyone in the Rec room. Usually this was my routine, but not today.

This morning I had slept in, past my alarm clock and even past wake-up call. Now, it was almost 7:30 AM when I had walked out of my room and to the mess hall to snag at least an apple or something small, just to last til' lunch. Though at the thought of food was making very hungry and wanting a full meal, but if I had a full meal, that would throw off my lunch then that in turn would throw off my dinner if I ate later in the day.

Luckily when I walked into the mess hall, no one was there, except for the cooks, so I snagged and quickly ate a banana and a small bowl of plain oatmeal. Once done and currently satisfied of my small breakfast, it was now closer to 8 O' clock which meant that my morning class would be ending soon. "_I hope Scarlet covered my morning class._" Sure, it wasn't normal for me to sleep through two alarms but I could have my days of slip-ups, couldn't I? Just because I was a ninja and early rising was drilled into me, doesn't mean I can't act human and skip a few hours of work. I chuckled silently at the ninja and human since ninjas were myth's in some peoples minds, others super-human. I wasn't into comics but thinking of picturing myself as a myth in some little boy's mind was just to...whats the word...appealing in a way.

I sighed and walked into the Rec room and was greeted by Heavy Duty and Breaker but more so Breaker than Heavy Duty. The Moroccan man walked up to me with a slightly confused and worried face.

"Hey, Snakes. Have you seen Amber this morning?" He asked as we walked further into the room so we could have a more comfortable conversation and to not block the exit.

"_**No, why do you asked?**_"I signed then he sighed as he pushed his glasses up his nose in an annoyed manner, this usually wasn't good.

"I have new upgrades for her arm. I sent her a message on her computer and PDA. When she never responded, I figured she over slept, so I went to her room and found that she wasn't there and both devices were in her room," He explained as we stood next to the couch and near my little corner of the room where my stuff was.

With this information, it made me slightly worried. "_Where could she be? She's never disappeared like this before..._" I pondered as I stood there in thought, my posture almost looking that the historical statue, The Thinker.

"_**Have you asked the others?**_" He nodded in response and sat on the couch, leaning forwards with his elbows on his knees. This made my worrying increase since the others didn't know ether. Other than Scarlet, Amber was a very dear friend to me and the thought of her missing made my mind race with what happened to her. Did she fall somewhere, injure herself and no one has found her yet? Did someone come and take her as a hostage while we all slept? Was she dead somewhere in the base?

This worrying made me think back, back to the day two weeks after she had arrived here. We had gotten along fairly well because I felt as though we had known each other for years and because we had a lot of things in common. We both shared the love for Japan and its culture, I had lived there and some of her family was from there. We both like martial arts, jasmine tea, anything that was a blade and, ironically, our favorite color was black. Somethings that I did she came into habit of wanting to learn such as meditating, easily walking as to make no sound, ASL, and, weird as this may sound, cooking. When I had cooked for her for the first time, she loved it and asked me to teach her, so I did and currently still am.

Our friendship had grew a great deal when she had showed up one night at my door, bruised, in pain and slightly crying though obvious that more crying had happened before she showed up do to the dried tears on her face. Amber was also a strong woman when it came to emotional and physical pain, but that night was the first time I had ever seen her cry and not take pain as a joke like she usually did. She was a wreck when I allowed her into my room and sat on the couch.

She had told me that there were a few recruits, like herself at the time, didn't like the fact someone with her 'disability' was trying to be on the Alpha Team, so they tried to scare her out of the Pit by beating her up. Upon further inspection of cleaning her up and tending to her wounds, this is why I'm against people beating women, not only did they beat her but had stomped and smashed the shoulder joint of her prosthetic arm which had to cause extreme pain. The only reason I knew it would have cause a lot of pain because when she first showed and told me about her arm, the area where her real shoulder joint would have been, was still very tender.

From that day, our friendship had just went further up the scale each time she got hurt, or needed to talk to me when something bothered her. She told me she didn't like any form of doctor when it came about talking or personal information, but to get to the point, she would rather personal information to a terrorist than a doctor, that's how much she hated them. Though, when she did meet Doc, she said he's been the most trustworthy and nice doctor she had ever met and all the other doctors could...well lets just say she had a very colorful vocabulary when she talked about the others.

I came back into reality from my thoughts and looked back down at Breaker, signing. "_**Did you check all her usual hang-outs and place's she would hate so we wouldn't look?**_" I knew she would never got to place's like the infirmary unless she had to and she never liked going down near the hangers where the vehicles were kept since a soldier wasn't looking and literally almost ran her over when she walked in. If I hadn't pulled her out of the way, we would have been down a soldier and the only time she ever goes back in there is with the team to depart for missions.

"I even checked the surveillance camera's to try and find her. You know, I think she gets the whole, not wanting to be found, from you," He stood and adjusted his glasses as he glared at me. "Lets rally the team to try and find her. I'll look over last nights tapes to see if I can trace her steps from her room," He said and I followed the Moroccan to get the others for the search.

.~:*:~.

It had been over four hours since our search started and we still couldn't find Amber. Breaker said that she had went into the gym last night but that was the last time he had saw her since there weren't any camera's in the gym do to privacy purposes and the fact that none of the Joes would want to steal gym equipment.

I had went back to the gym and looked around again but there wouldn't be any place for her to hide. Sure, she may have been small and could fit into place like the air-ducts or even a mini fridge for that matter, but with the type of equipment in here, there really would be no place for her to hide. I even went up the catwalks to see if she was there, but no dice.

We all decided to take a break and get back to a few hours of work while Breaker still looked through the tapes. Since I wasn't scheduled to have an afternoon class til' somewhere around dinner time, I decided to go and do self training. So I got a few things from my room and headed to the private training rooms.

When I opened the door and flicked on the lights, I stopped right in my tracks and stared at the body on the floor. I slowly put my stuff by the door and cautiously walked over to the body and saw it was Amber. I sighed in relief and knelt down by her side and noticed she was sleeping. "_How long has she been here?_"

When she whimpered a little in her sleep, I quickly noticed that she was having another nightmare. When she had first told me about her nightmares, and when I found a pattern in her sleep when she would have nightmares, I knew when to wake her. Right now it must have been a bad one since I had decided to call her whimpering stage two. Her stage one would be tossing and turning, stage two was whimpering and shaking, and stage three was talking or screaming in her sleep. Usually now, the only thing that would calm her down without waking her was to hold her, and that's what I did.

I locked the door and gently picked her up then sat against the wall with her in my lap, her back against my chest though it didn't take long for her to calm down. I gently wrapped my arms around her and tried to meditate as best I could while she slept. "_So much for training...but this is worth skipping it..._"

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><p><strong>Have no fear, next chapter will pick up where this one left off.<strong>

**Please Read and Review**


	4. A Name But No Face

**Hey guys, I know I said this would pick up where it left off and it is, just fast forwards alil but have no fear, its still just as promised...please don't hurt me for skipping an hour into the future. *Hides behind Snake Eyes***

**Anyway, after this, I'm not sure when I will be able to post another chapter since I'm trying to get college stuff done as well as trying to find a job and not sure when my schedule will open up for writing, but I will try my best. Hopefully I can write on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.**

**I'm also sorry for the long delay of this story and for Despite Our Differences. Like I side up top, I'm trying to get into college and my schedule is really hectic right now.**

***Cries* I hope I can get everything done!...Snake!...Duke!...ANYONE!...please help me write...*cries more***

****I don't own any part of G.I. Joe or any of its characters...but if I did, Snake Eyes would be helping me write this. I do own any Oc's or random people or things in the story.****

****Thoughts will be in ****__Italic and underlined__**_..._**and Sign Language and things written on paper will be in **__Bold and Italic___._**

**I hope you all like this chapter...cheers!**

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><p>Something felt comfortable yet hard beneath me as I began to go into that state of half asleep and awake, still dreaming but hearing things around you. As I began to wake up more and more, wanting to know what was under me, I slightly stirred and yawed while slowly opening my eyes and noticing that I was no longer on the mat. <span>"<span>_What the hell..."_ I started to think if I had moved sometime while sleeping or if someone had came in and moved me off to the side.

"This isn't where I fell asleep," I mumbled tiredly, sleep wanting to over come my mind again but then I felt something tighten around me and something shaking behind me. I looked down and for a moment there's was a familiar little hand. In black fingerless gloves, ones that belonged to someone I knew. There was a reason I specifically remembered them because it was not moments ago that I had been a little girl with tiny hands, hands that had been gripping this one in perfect harmony. It took another moment to realize how dry my eyes were and I blinked saw black clad armored arms wrapped around me that I immediately recognized. I knew who this arm belonged to unlike the boys arm.. I then looked up and saw Snake Eye's visor looking down at me, seeing my reflection in it and noticing he was actually laughing, the source of the shaking.

"And I clearly don't remember falling asleep on you...not that I mind, your actually very comfy," I mumbled, not really noticing what my sleep muddled mind was making me say. He laughed silently at this and pulled me tighter to him, causing me to tiredly laugh as well until he put his note pad in my face, well not really in my face but close enough.

"_**You and I need to talk, but first, why were you in here sleeping?" **_It said in his beautiful handwriting.

"Well...I couldn't sleep last night so I worked out for a while, then I came in here to meditate and I guess I must have fallen asleep in the middle of it," I looked around and chuckled a little. "I honestly didn't plan on sleeping in here..." I sat up slightly but Snake Eyes kept his hold on me, not letting me go anywhere.

He lowered the note pad and started to right on it again, his movements shaking me a little then it stopped and showed me what he wrote. "_**If you felt tired after working out, you should have went back to bed. You were pushing yourself again, weren't you?**_" He paused for a moment before writing again. " _**Also, why couldn't you sleep?...you could have come to me and we could have talked," **_He tilted his head to the side slightly in question, waiting for an answer as I looked up at him, then I sighed as I looked away.

"Well," I dragged the word out for a wile but then Snake Eyes bumped me and I chuckled and continued. "Maybe I did feel kinda tired before meditating but I was only going to do it for a few minutes..." I trailed off and looked down. "And I didn't want to bother you so late at night, well, the wee hours of the this morning. I didn't want to disturb in case you were already asleep and I didn't want you to get mad at me for waking you," I lightly chewed on my bottom lip, my childish antics surfacing a little. "Sorry for worrying you..." I mumbled and twiddled with my thumbs.

I heard Snake Eyes sigh and chuckled silently, his body shaking with the laughter. He started to write again then held up the pad. "_**Amber, if you are in need of my help, I would gladly have stayed up with you to talk. I could never get mad at my friends; well, depending on what you do; but asking me for help, I will always say yes. And please, don't ever worry about waking me up, I will always have time for you. That's what friends do,"**_ He gave me a gentle squeeze as he hugged me.

Looking up at him over my shoulder, I smiled softly at him. "Thanks Snakes, though I do think that tea you give is more voodoo than talking or anything else you do to calm me," I teased with him and lightly hit his arm, both of us laughing. "But seriously, thank you, it really does help," I said kindly then looked over at the clock, noticing how late it was getting. "We should go, dinner time is getting close," I wiggled out of Snakes' hold and stood, stretching as I worked out the kinks in my muscles.

Snake Eyes stood as well and stretched, grabbing his things, we both left the training room to go and tell the others than I had been found and to go get some food into our stomach's.

.~:*:~.

After the team and I had a very relaxing lunch, along with a few jokes and pranks, we all went to the Rec room to chill. Everyone went to their own respective areas as we walked entered. Rip and Duke went over to the weights near the back of the room to get a few rep's in, Breaker sat down on the couch to work on his laptop and any other updates he would have for me in the future, and Scarlet went to the treadmill to work off the food she just ate. Heavy Duty went and sat down in a corner to read a weapons magazine while disassembling one of his guns to clean it, and Snake went over to his corner to meditate.

I went over to another area of the room and sat down, observing my friends, my family, and smiled, happy that I was wanted somewhere and felt safe. As I sat there, I decided to try and meditate, clearing my mind and focusing on sounds, smells, and other things around me, but after a few minutes, I dozed off into a light sleep.

I wasn't sure how long I had been sitting there sleeping but one thing was for sure, the nightmares started to come back. One of them was just mostly black blurs, moving back and forth quickly, almost as if fighting though the blurs were small, like little kids. They kept moving back and forth, wielding what seemed like weapons, but that didn't matter as my nightmare changed. This time, there was a bright dancing light but everything was still blurs and something smelled like smoke. I heard screams, everything went bright for a moment and dimmed back down. Everything slowed for a brief moment and I saw what looked like the side of an ambulance truck, then as quick as it came, everything sped back up.

The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes, seeing what looked like children hands, covered in black fingerless gloves. They were resting on my knees, then one moved and shook me by my shoulder. I looked up and everything was fine as I saw Snake and Scarlet crouched in front of me, the others standing behind them with worried looks. Looking back at the hands they were still covered in black, but they also covered the fingers too.

"What happened?...whats wrong?...did I miss something?"I asked tiredly, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and trying to forget about the nightmares I just had. Everyone looked at each other until Scarlet made a shooing motion with her hand. "Scarlet...Snake, whats wrong?...what did I miss?"I asked again, thinking something was really wrong.

"_**You dozed off and were having your nightmares again...you were whimpering in your sleep,"**_Snake Eyes signed to me slowly, making sure I was able to understand him. "_**We all got worried and woke you up before it got worse,"**_he squeezed my knee slightly and I knew he was worried about me.

"You need to go see Doc about this,"Scarlet said and I quickly shook my head, not wanting to go consult the doctor again since he would just give me more pills, in turn that would greatly upset Snake Eyes. She sighed and looked at me in a serious way. "You still need to go to him, like it or not. I will take you there if I have to,"she told me sternly.

Snake Eyes laid a hand on Scarlet's arm and shook his head, then signed quickly to her, far too quickly for me to follow along. I saw her give him a hesitant nod as he kept signing to her until she finally stood and walked off. Snake Eyes stood as well, holding his hand out for me to take, which I did, and he helped me stand up.

"What?"I asked as he gently grabbed my wrist, leading me out of the room and down the hall. "Snake?..."I was getting worried that he himself was going to take me to Doc, then cause a scene for him to properly diagnose me about my nightmares. When he wouldn't answer me, I stopped in my tracks, refusing to move until he answered me.

He looked back at me, letting go of my wrist as he started to sign. "_**We are going to my room to talk, and have tea, so that your mind will calm down,"**_he signed softly, holding his hand back out to me.

I looked down slightly then slowly took it, walking with him to his room. "This isn't fair to you Snake, you shouldn't have to do this,"I felt bad. Having him take time out of his day, or sometimes night, to tame my mind just so I could have a descent day or a nights sleep, just wasn't fair to him. I heard him sigh at my comment and I looked over at him as he began to sign.

"_**Whether it be fair to me or not, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and let you suffer from these nightmares,"**_he stopped and turned mor towards me than he already had. "_**Your my friend, comrade, and partner in crime,"**_I laughed slightly at the last part, now there was a good story, his mood lightening. "_**I don't care if I was on my death bed, I want to help you,"**_he tilted his head to the side, ever so slightly, knowing that he was looking at me softly.

I sighed in defeat and nodded, getting his point. "Thanks, Snakes. That means a lot to me,"I said softly, smiling a little as we headed to his room.

.~:*:~.

Snake Eyes and I talked for a good while, two hours to be exact. I told him about my recent nightmares, about how the images were blurs of people fighting then about something that may have been on fire and seeing the ambulance. I sipped at my warm cup of tea, my sixth one, but I didn't care as long as it helped me and kept me calm.

"_**These are sounding more like repressed memories, things you can't remember or you blocked them out when you were young. In all honesty, I think you need to go to Doc..."**_he was hesitate with his next few words. "_**...get some tests done,"**_he slowly signed then waited for me to go into an outburst, but it never came. Instead, I just sat there, then looked down into my cup of tea.

"I know you mean well, Snake, but I don't want any tests done, I don't want to be some lab rat until they find whats wrong. I've been down that road before,"I gripped my robotic arm, remembering all the poking a prodding the doctors did when Breaker finished my arm. They were trying to see how it would connect it to my shoulder, but all they did was testing until four months later, they finally found away. I heard him sigh, almost as in frustration with me and my stubbornness. "I'll just go..."I placed my cup on the table then stood from the mat I was sitting on. "Thanks for your help..."I slipped into my shoes and left before he could do anything.

Its not that he was frustrated about her in general, it was just the fact that she was refusing help from others, even for reasons that he understood. All he was hoping for, was for her to open up more, trust someone else or at least him, enough to get to the bottom of what was causing her nightmares or to help her get rid of them. Sighing, he finished his tea and cleaned up, his mind in a turmoil about what to do.

I ended up wandering around for a bit, a little put off at myself for just getting up and leaving the way I did. "I hate myself right now,"I mumbled, stuffing my hands into my pockets as I walked. Seeing how I had nothing to do and I didn't feel like going back to the Rec room or to Snake's room, I decided to head up to the catwalks to get away from everything, to think things through and maybe, just maybe sort out my nightmares. _Like that's going to happen. I would have a better chance at getting Snake to break his vow..._ I snorted at my own remark and kept walking, heading up some service stairs to the catwalks.

.~:*:~.

After I spent a few hours up on the catwalks, thinking and talking to myself mentally, I headed back down to the Rec room as it got closer to dinner time. I walked slowly through the halls, taking my time as I did, hands in my pockets. _Still feel like shit for ditching Snake like that, I owe him an apology,_ I told myself, mentally kicking myself in the ass about it. "Really hating my life,"I looked up at the ceiling for a moment and sighed, continuing on my way.

As I was about to walk into the Rec room, I heard the new guy Duke, and Scarlet talking, so I hung back. To me, it sounded like they were having some sort of debt, so I decided to try and listen in. There conversation or debt went on for a while until I heard Dukes question.

"Why doesn't he speak Scarlet? If I'm going to be on this team, I need to be able to communicate with him, battles aren't going to wait for him to write things out on a note pad,"he sound slightly angry with her, but who was he talking about, then I face palmed myself, _Snake Eyes_.

Scarlet sighed, she too sounding angry. "One, it's not my place to say. Second, your the one who blackmailed your way into here, so either you deal with it and find a way to communicate with him, or you and your friend can kiss your asses back to the states,"she told him, plain, simple and to the point, that's the Scarlet I know.

I poked my head around the corner to see both of them then to see Snake Eyes himself walk up to his two comrades, signing and hoping Scarlet would translate.

"He says that you would have to learn ASL, just like everyone else here..."she watched Snakes hands as he kept signing. "As for why he doesn't speak, he says he took a vow of silence long ago, just before he left his clan. It was out of respect for his master being murdered,"she sighed and gave her best friend a sad look. "And that when he finds the person responsible, which he thinks is his sword brother, Storm Shadow, he will kill him. When that is done, he will then break his vow for avenging his master,"she looked at Duke with a not to happy face. "Happy?"

He took a step back, holding his hands up in defense. "Alright, I get it. You don't need to lash out,"he told her then looked over at Snake Eyes. "Sorry man, you didn't have to tell me if you didn't want to,"he now felt bad for prying, but Snake just shook his head and hands, telling him it was not a problem.

I stood there, slowly disappearing behind the wall next to the door. "Storm Shadow...why does that sound so familiar...Master?"I looked down, puzzled at this new information, but for some reason, this sounded all to familiar...like I had known this before. _This is confusing..._I rubbed my temples and looked over at the doorway. "But why does that name sound familiar...then again, why is this bothering me?"I asked myself in a whisper. "Maybe I should talk to Snakes about this,"I kept talking to myself, not noticing that I had been found out about eavesdropping.

"Talk to him about what?"Scarlet asked as all three of them stood there behind me.

I yelped in surprise, jumping and turning to them, almost falling on my ass if it wasn't for Snake Eyes reflexes in grabbing my arm to steady me. "Thanks, Snakes,"I gulped and straighten up. "As for your question, Scarlet. That is for me to talk with Snake about, thank you kindly,"I said with a big smile, she chuckled at my face. "But seriously, I'm not trying to be mean, but this something I would have to talk to him about,"I told her softly, my smile fading.

"I understand, don't worry,"she told me and patted my shoulder then grasped Duke by the shirt and walked off. "Hey!"he complained. "Can it,"she said as they rounded the corner.

Snake Eyes looked at me then motioned for us to walk down the opposite hallway. As we walked, he signed in basic ASL for me.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"he asked, looking over at me briefly before looking back forwards.

Sighing, I rubbed the back of my neck. "Well, I kinda overheard Duke and Scarlet, I saw you signing to her, and what she translated for you made me think that it all sound to familiar to me. Almost like a past memory skimmed my mind, I was hoping you could help what it might mean to me,"I looked up at him softly, hoping he would help.

He looked at me for a moment in thought, thinking about his own theories on what it all may mean to her. "_**Well, lets start off with something simple. What is it about what I said that seems familiar?**_"he signed as we kept walking down the hall.

"A name actually. Storm Shadow. In my head, it seems like I've known that name forever, but to myself and how I feel about it. I have no idea who that person is and that's whats bothering me. Why should I feel so connected to a name when I don't the person who owns it?"I looked down sadly, feeling lost and empty with all this confusion in my head.

Snake apparently saw my look of helplessness and gave me a one armed hug as we walked, but as I looked around a little more, I saw we were heading towards the catwalks. The catwalks were one of our many places were we talked or just hung out after a long day of work or training.

"Thanks,"he gave my shoulders a small squeeze before opening a service door and held it open for me. Bowing my head slightly in thanks, I walked through the doorway and up the stairs, Snake Eyes following after me.

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><p><strong>Alright, another chapter folks! Oh, just wanted to let you all know that I will now be updating acording to reviews.<strong>

**Seriously guys, not kidding about this. I really like hearing from you and gives me my muse, so please, if you wish to express how you feel or what could be added, put it in a review. If I like what you have to say, I will consider putting it somewhere in a chapter and will credit you at the top.**

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